AFJ's Team is Growing: Meet Our New Staff Members!
In 2020, despite the pandemic, AFJ served the largest number of court-involved participants in our 40+ year history. We also launched our new HIRE UP program with job training, corporate partnerships and workshops for life skills and mental health. This year, we’re continuing to expand these programs in order to serve more youth across New York City.
This past week, we onboarded three full-time members, along with a summer intern.
We are thrilled to have Samantha, Tiffany, Shantel and Jaime join our AFJ team. Learn about each of our new staff members below!
SAMANTHA
Activities & Program Coordinator: Samantha joins AFJ with 10 years of experience working with high-risk and homeless youth and alternative educational programming. Leading with her belief in the importance of education and the practicality and strength that comes with applying those tools gained in the classroom into the real world. Samantha looks forward to creating exceptional programming geared towards the professional and personal growth of AFJ's participants. Samantha received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Affairs with a minor in Nonprofit Leadership and Biology from Seattle University.
TIFFANY
Harlem Court Advocate: Tiffany provided case management to court-involved youth with group and individual mentoring at the Brooklyn Mental Health Court. Prior to this experience, she was a case manager for Project Renewal’s Fort Washington Men’s Shelter, SCO Family of Services in Woodside and Jamaica, Queens, and at Praxi Housing Initiatives. Tiffany earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies of Education and Psychology at Touro College. She strongly believes helping one person at a time can make the world a better place.
SHANTEL
Lower East Side Court Advocate: Shantel offers over 5 years of experience spanning supportive housing, case management at a family shelter, Mental Health Intake Coordinator at Fortune Society and Housing Advocacy Case Manager at University Settlement Society of New York. In addition to working with those impacted by issues of mental health and homelessness, she has worked with individuals who were incarcerated, helping them re-enter into society. Shantel holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
JAIME
Summer Intern: Our summer intern, Jaime, is an undergraduate student at Yale College where she plans to study sociology and public health which intersect heavily with the topics of criminal justice, deviance, and rehabilitation initiatives. So far, she has assisted AFJ with an array of projects, such as charting AFJ's funding history, creating a long-term survey for AFJ participants, and helping to develop the new AFJ website. Jaime has also attended several court hearings as well as our Juneteenth event at AFJ's Harlem Center, led by corporate partner, Charles' Pan Fried Chicken.
